A Perfect Garden
by CrushedSummer
Summary: After a series of restless nights, Umi learns astral projection: the art of exiting from her sleeping body to explore another world. Out there, she meets another girl doing the same.
1. Leaving Your Body

_Umi reminded herself that step one was awareness._

 _"This can't kill me. This can't kill me. This can't kill me. This can't kill me," she chanted._

 _That, however, remained difficult to believe so long as her eyes drifting over the edge of the cobblestone path could reveal a vast blue expanse, as though she risked falling up into the sky._

 _Fortunately for her heart rate, she had nearly reached the floating island._

* * *

Umi opened the door to the student council room. It was after hours, and that was how she preferred it; only the president and vice-president would still be lingering.

It wasn't that she had a problem with Honoka, but after spending first year almost entirely with her lone childhood friend, it was refreshing to make some new ones. Plus, she couldn't deny that the girl's boundless energy, when combined with the frequent, "geez Umi, you look _really_ tired," comments as of late were getting on her nerves a little.

"Goodness Umi, you look _really_ tired."

Umi groaned, "Nozomi, please!"

"Is it so wrong to care about my adorable underclassman?" Nozomi inquired, with a playful smile and a quirked eyebrow.

The subject of her teasing was no stranger to the game being played. If years of kendo and archery had taught her one thing, it was to be cognizant of one's own weaknesses. Thus, she opted to say nothing, sit down, and pretend she wasn't flushed to the ears.

She wasn't a member of the student council, not yet, at least, but her responsible nature meant she often helped Nozomi and Eli with their duties regardless.

"Umi?" the latter asked.

"Hm?"

"Are you alright? You've been staring for a while now."

And indeed, she refocused to find herself holding an untouched form from one club or another. After a quick apology, she got to work, albeit more slowly than usual.

Approved.

Denied.

Approved.

Denied.

Her eyelids began to droop.

Denied.

Approved.

She was slumping in her seat.

Approved.

Denied-

"Umi?"

"Ah?" the blue haired girl jerked upright.

"We've done just about enough for the day; finish up that one and we'll pack up."

"R-right."

Denied.

The trio began to gather their things, Umi contemplating returning to her bed's sweet embrace all the while. Tempting as it would be to go back as soon as she got home, she decided against it, lest she actually succeed in sleeping and destroy her sleep cycle further in the process. Topically, Eli chose that moment to ask once again whether she was alright.

"It's as Nozomi said," she replied, "I'm just extremely tried right now."

The girl in question piped up at that, "And just why is that, Umi?"

How long had it been? A few weeks perhaps?

"It's just, well, whenever I should be going to sleep, I can't help but think that's there's some work, or studying, or something more productive that I'd be better off doing. I end up thinking I can just power though it and deal with a bit less sleep, but it adds up. I try to catch up on sleep when I can, but doing that messes up my cycle as well."

"So in other words, you need more motivation to drop everything and go to bed?"

"Yes, I suppose you could put it that way."

"Well then, I might just have some advice up my sleeve for you," Nozomi began with a flourish and a glint in her eye, "Tell me, does the term ' _astral projection_ ' mean anything to you?"

Humoring Nozomi had an odd tendency to bring both humiliation and help in equal measure, mostly because she genuinely meant well just below the teasing exterior. Eli clearly understood this, rolling her eyes, yet smiling slightly and letting her somewhat eccentric friend continue.

Umi made up her mind.

"Tell me more."

* * *

" _The first step of anything you do regarding this will always be awareness. You need to be focused on the fact that you want to astral project when you sleep for it to actually happen._ "

With Nozomi's words ringing through her mind, and after a few nights of experimentation, Umi found herself standing over her own sleeping body.

" _Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic-_ " she thought, " _this is how she said it would be. Awareness._ "

She waited for her breathing to return to normal and-

Actually, did she even need to breathe?

...

Perhaps it was better not to fool around too much on her first time.

" _Step two is to disconnect from your body entirely and enter the astral plane. This part is unique to each person; all I can really tell you is that you should find some sort of entrance as you move away from the body._ "

The first movements were an incredibly bizarre sensation; her form felt as weighty as her real one, yet her movements were utterly silent, and she didn't feel the friction of the carpet as she should have. A bit of conscious effort was needed to make herself walk normally once she was into the hall; the instinct to creep and avoid waking up her family was overpowering.

A crack in the doorway gave her pause.

The beds of her parents were empty and she, once again, was fighting rising nervousness.

Nozomi hadn't mentioned that, but then again, Umi seemed to recall Nozomi living alone.

It was normal, she told herself, it had to be. It was only logical that-

No. It really wasn't. The whole situation was utterly mind boggling and to tell herself that it could all be explained logically was far too weak a lie to be effective.

" _Now this ties back into step one. Remember: it isn't your physical body; nothing can really hurt you out there. You'll wake up if something too bad happens to you._ "

Right. She needn't be afraid with that as insurance, at least. Come to think of it, though, that "too bad" part was a tad worrying. It still seemed to allow for "bad". Hopefully that was nothing too excruciating.

Umi pinched herself. She was still standing in the hall.

Apparently "too bad" did have a bit of a pain tolerance, but that was probably for the best; nothing would ever get done if even the most marginal pain woke her.

She tried not to let the distant creaks and groans of the empty house bother her as she sped towards the front door. Eager as she was to leave, she couldn't help but think that she hadn't the slightest idea of what this "entrance" looked like, or even how to begin to find it. With her hand on the doorknob, she could only hope she wouldn't have to wander an empty city in search of it.

Blinding light flooded in.

Umi's weight carried her forward, sent her tumbling out into open air.

Hands groped futilely at nothing, hair whipped and she felt her entire body turn over in the air. For a second, she thought that would be her death, then for another, she thought it would be her awakening.

Then she opened her eyes to find her front door, and only the door itself, levitating above her head. As it swung shut again, she could glimpse her home on the other side, impossibly existing beyond the threshold, yet not physically behind where the door hovered.

After more than a few moments of no doubt undignified gawking, she slowly became aware of herself once more.

She had definitely not stuck the landing.

In fact, she hadn't stuck the landing so hard that she was actually sunken slightly into the sand she had fallen into. Yet, she didn't mind; it was amazingly fine and pleasantly warm. Coloured like brilliant gold, the sand somehow managed to be extremely clean, too, and for a moment, she simply marveled at the look and sensation of it running through her fingers.

Soon she could hardly even remember what she had been so worried about. Perhaps this wouldn't be so bad.

" _And finally step three. Explore! It's a world unlike anything you'll find on Earth, and it's not like you have something better to be doing when you're already asleep. The very worst that could happen to you is something waking you up. Oh, and remember: you're not the only one who knows about astral projection; you can even meet other people out there._ "

Umi sat up, relishing the feeling of the warm sand pouring off her, and looked around.

A narrow path plunged into the distance, where the dunes merged into a pale yellow sky, the colour of faint sunlight.

She stood, sand welling up between her toes and stumbled forward, still dazed. Cool clay introduced itself underfoot on the path, which also seemed to be permeated by the gold, though it remained dimmer than the sand.

And just off the side-

Was that there before?

Was she to believe her eyes?

The thing, a sign, she now saw, looked for all the world like it had been pencilled into reality. Its messy outline jittered like stop motion and housed a simple drawing of planet Neptune at waist-height. Perhaps it meant something; she didn't know the nature of this world. But she took it in stride and kept walking; what more could she do?

The sun didn't beat down, in fact, she couldn't even seem to locate it in the sky. A gentle, uniform light seemed to bleed through the entire sky, and the same was true of the heat.

Sand stretched for all directions, yet Umi still found herself enamored the landscape. The glimmer of gold refused to be ignored, and pulled her towards the crest of the enormous dune the path ascended.

A peculiar noise caught her notice.

A shifting sound was slowly growing; she was moving towards it, whatever it was. She waited for the apprehension, but it never came. Something about this place made her heart beat steadily.

And it remained steady as she neared the crest and the shifting of sand intensified to a near-roar.

She stood at the top and watched the crashing sand. Torrents of it poured out like liquid gold, down into-

" _The sky?_ " she thought.

An airy blue expanse awaited off the edge of the desert. Actually, looking closer, a narrow path wound out into the sky from the desert, sand crashing over it.

There was only one way down.

And suddenly her heartbeat wasn't so steady. Umi swallowed hard.

" _Even if I miss, I'll only wake up,_ " she forcefully reminded herself.

She remained on the precipice for several minutes, battling her own instincts.

" _Nothing too bad will happen. Take a chance for once in your life."_

She took a step forward, then retreated, then another forward, and retreated once more. Finally, gathering her courage, she threw herself forward and ran to where the grains began to flow. Her balance failed her, but she didn't care. All she could focus on was the astounding concoction of terror and excitement of racing down the river of sand. Perhaps she was screaming; she couldn't tell over the roar of the sand.

Through the tears in her eyes she could barely make out the path rushing up to greet her and-

It took several minutes to regain her bearings. Umi, now with an extremely sore backside, had skidded past the landing point of the sand and come to a rest face up, staring at the point where the sky's gold melded with watercolour blue. She looked back to find that cobblestone path connected to bedrock beneath the sand, and below that...nothing.

The desert drifted through the sky. Looking down also failed to reveal an Earth to descend to.

Umi didn't consider herself acrophobic, but she certainly wasn't prepared for this, and was thus repeatedly forced to remind herself that she wasn't in real danger. Topically, it was fortunate that she had come in at a shallow enough angle to avoid injury, she noted, as she shakily stood.

Turning the other way revealed another floating island in the distance.

High winds pulled at her at she noted that, yes, the path was, in fact, _far_ too narrow for comfort. But it wasn't like she had any other options, or anything to lose.

Umi swallowed her fear and tentatively began moving forward.

"This can't kill me. This can't kill me. This can't kill me. _This can't kill me._ "

* * *

She almost wanted to fall to the ground and kiss it when she finally reached the floating landmass.

It seemed that this was a more temperate biome; emerald grass sprung up underfoot and sprawled out into a field with a handful of deciduous trees dotting it.

Stepping in slowly soothed her pounding heart and renewed her desire to explore.

The whole landscape was possessed of a vibrance unseen in the waking world; saturated colours which seemed to have leapt directly from a painter's palette nearly overwhelmed her as she took it all in. The trees, the grass, even the ground and very air all seemed somehow clean and fresh, in keeping with the sand's standard. It felt like an idealized version of the real world.

Still, maybe that was to be expected of the dream world-

Or "astral plane" she reminded herself. Supposedly this was a real, spiritual world, as was Nozomi's forte. Umi couldn't remember having any dreams like this before, but then again, there were few dreams she remembered long after waking. Actually meeting other people in a regular dream should have been impossible, at the very least.

Which was a fact she reminded herself of when she first heard the singing.

The trees at the edge of the field collected into a thicket, muffling the sweet, high-pitched voice bleeding through. Slowly, she found herself drawn between the trees, chasing snippets of melody.

She took her place behind a tree at the edge of the clearing the voice echoed from. Peering around, she drank in every detail of the girl sitting on the stump in the center. Long ashen locks framed delicate porcelain skin, etched with a lovely, innocent smile. Beautiful, in short. Her eyes were closed in contentment as her voice rang out like a silver bell.

" _Sleep is a curse. Do you remember the moment the music led our dying minds to heaven?_ "

Unable to resist, Umi drew a little closer.

" _The promises of-_ "

A loud crack jolted both parties to attention; the observer looked down to find a branch broken cleanly beneath her foot, then looked up to find the singer staring back at her.

"U-um," Umi stuttered, feeling much like her childhood self meeting Honoka for the first time. She urged herself to do it, to force though. What had she to fear from meeting someone new when she had already managed the dive into this nonsensical world?

"H-hello. I heard your singing and just sort of, uh, followed it here. Because...your singing - it was really, uh, really nice. Oh, and I'm Umi Sonoda, by the way."

" _Smooth_ ," she immediately thought to herself before contemplating running all the way back to bury her head in the sand. But it seemed her ordeal had paid off, as the girl simply began to laugh. It, too, was a sweet, high ringing that carried through the air like birdsong and set Umi at ease once more.

Wiping a tear from the eye, and struggling to contain a second burst of laughter, the girl replied, "I'm Kotori Minami." A brief, awkward silence passed before she patted the stump beside her and said, "Don't be a stranger, now!"

Thus, Umi found herself sitting next to a girl she had never met before on a flying island in an alternate dimension. The trunk was actually titanic, now that she was looking at it up close, larger than any Earthly tree ought to grow.

Umi couldn't help but notice that, in spite of that, they were sitting extremely close.

And a small part of her didn't mind that at all.

Okay, perhaps more than just a small part.

Kotori took her turn to break the ice, "So, how many times have you projected?"

"This is actually my first."

"Oh?" Kotori said, eyes (which Umi now saw were an amber as lovely as the rest of her) lighting up, "Then let's try to make it a great first experience for you! There's a lot I can show you before we get separated."

"When we wake up, right?"

"Yes, but I meant more that there's a chance we won't see each other again after tonight. You've definitely seen the floating islands on your way here."

"Right."

"They're constantly on the move. Any two islands won't be near each other for that long, and I find that I always start out on the same one."

"Oh, I see."

It seemed obvious to Umi now that it had been pointed out, but it was a bit of an intimidating concept. She would never truly settle in and know this place well, save for perhaps her little patch of desert. On the other hand, that itself was part of the allure: to be able to explore, even adventure, dare she say it, each night.

Still, she definitely wouldn't mind seeing this ' _Kotori'_ girl again.

"Well, let's do it, then!" The ashen haired girl said, clasping her hands together and standing. Umi did the same, only for the girl to pause and look her over with a giggle before adding, "Oh, and cute PJ's, Miss So-No-Da."

Umi looked down to find that she was, indeed, still wearing her oversized, checked blue button-ups.

"D-does this really have any bearing on what we're about to do?"

Kotori, with a finger to her lip, turned and began to exit the clearing, prompting the flustered girl to follow.

"Hm...well it seems that you're stuck with whatever you went to sleep in. Your family might find you weird for it, but wearing your shoes to bed couldn't hurt."

Would it be strange, Umi wondered, to reply that she actually enjoyed the feeling of the sand between her toes where she arrived? Probably. So she simply allowed Kotori to continue as they wove through the trees.

"I actually like designing and making clothes in my spare time, so if I 'accidentally' fall asleep in an outfit," she said, twirling her skirt, seemingly delighted by her minor mischief, "my parents don't think it's that weird. Anyway, you should be fine like this; this world seems to be, I don't know, gentle? I wouldn't go walking barefoot around a forest normally, but it seems fine here."

Finally calm enough to articulate her thoughts again, Umi replied, "I noticed that as well. I arrived into a desert, but it was actually quite pleasant. No shade, yet it wasn't overly hot; the sand was soft and fine as well."

"Ah! Here we are," the cheerful girl exclaimed.

The trees abruptly ended and left hardly a meter of space before the edge of the island, where it brushed with the edge of another. They stepped across into the yellow prairie of the latter as Kotori began to lay out her plan.

"The island I emerged on is more-or-less straight across here. I was exploring towards your desert, but I also saw another route out there," she said, pointing westward.

"So we'll have to head that way, then?"

"For now. But new paths will open soon enough."

A comfortable silence fell over the two as the tall grasses tickled their legs. The faintest hint of petrichor twirled past in the breeze, and Umi couldn't help but think that never in her life had she been so comfortable with someone who was nearly a stranger to her. The girl leading her seemed nearly a part of the dreamy world, embodying at once the mystery, and the gentle nature.

"Umi?"

"...Hm?"

" _Enjoying the view?_ " Kotori asked with a tiny, sly smile.

And here Umi was thinking that she wasn't one to stare.

"W-well," she said, trying her damnedest to ignore the heat spreading over her cheeks, "I was just...thinking of something nice."

Which wasn't entirely a lie.

The ground abruptly fell away beneath them. Umi stood in confusion for a moment before following Kotori's gaze to the massive shape hovering below.

Flowing water spiderwebbed over the landscape and parceled it into countless little islands in shades ranging from grassland to forest.

The mother off all weeping willows dragged itself upward to the meet them, and they exchanged a look. " _Please tell me we don't have to climb,_ " said Umi's. As rapidly as she was growing used to this place, it was hard not get vertigo from the height alone.

"There's only one way down," Kotori murmured.

Umi stepped back from the edge. Her hands shook. Could she really do this? Continuing meant bare-hand climbing all the way down and she-

And she felt the feather-soft touch of another hand over hers. Kotori was smiling gently at her.

"Umi, this is the place to take a chance. Nothing here is permanent."

Then she braced and sprang from the cliff. The blue haired girl could only watch, stunned, as her partner arced down to where to the leaves began, grabbing fistfuls of the oversized tendrils. Her momentum carried her down, flensing the leaves off beneath her hands until she finally came to a hanging stop.

And then she had the audacity to _let go_ with one hand, and offer an innocent smile and wave to the gobsmacked Umi above.

Like it was nothing, she disappeared into the canopy; her voiced carried back up a moment later, "It's ok, come on down!"

 _Come on down_? Just "come on down", like it was that simple? Instantly, Umi's perception of Kotori shifted from "cute and helpful literal dream girl" to "Amazonian warrior goddess".

So she stood on the precipice until that chiming voice called her name questioningly from below.

" _This can't kill me. This can't kill me. This can't-_ "

With a shrill hybrid battle/terror cry, Umi threw herself forward and plummeted into the foliage. The wind tore at her and watery sap covered her hands as she took hold of the tendrils and slid down. Her white-knuckled grip managed to halt her a considerable distance down. Slowly, she loosened up, yelping as she dropped another short distance before stopping again.

It was going to be a long trip down.

Breaking through the canopy revealed Kotori, and spurred Umi onward.

Once she was finally down, she collapsed to her knees, trembling from head to toe from fear and exertion. Her vision was tunneling so badly that she hardly noticed Kotori's hand rubbing her back, or the gentle voice saying, "See? I knew you could do it."

Once she was no longer a quivering mess, she stood, blushing from ear to ear, looked Kotori in the eye...and pretended nothing happened.

"It wasn't s-so b-bad."

And they continued on their way.

Small streams and rivers split the woods around them, where the smaller of the weeping willows gathered. They, and the waters, were drawn forward by the incline of the land. Shimmering sunlight and distant flickers lit the woods, and the growing glow from ahead told them that they were approaching the edge.

A stream moved in parallel to them as Umi took the first step beyond the woods and blinked in the light.

The terrain at once presented itself and took her breath away as her eyes adjusted.

The earth sloped steeply before plateauing below them, carrying the stream down into a confluence of glistening, saturated blue. Willows bowed around it, glows like embers flitting between their leaves. Somehow, someone, or something had constructed a tiny, quaint cabin looking out onto the water.

Then the barest hint of sweet scent introduced itself from the field of yellow asphodel stretching behind the cabin.

Neither knew what to say, so Kotori took the other girl's hand and began bringing them down the hill.

"I've never seen anything like this before..." the gray haired girl muttered.

"Did someone build it from scratch and leave it, or do things like this crop up naturally?"

"That's what I'm wondering."

The cabin was certainly rough hewn, a little haphazard looking, yet, it was inviting and had a certain heartfulness characteristic of an amateur builder about it. They rounded the structure and made for the door, a thin, rickety looking thing that seemed like it might snap off from being opened.

Inside, the cabin's lone room possessed the same charm. Flooding light from the doorway revealed equally rough furnishings. The mattress was stuffed with sand, the table seemed to be a slice of trunk, and the floor was raw earth.

"Homely."

Umi simply admired it while Kotori searched around.

"I can't find anything left behind by the last person..."

"Assuming there was one," Umi added.

"Yeah...Well I guess there isn't really anywhere to hide stuff in a place like this, so I'm done."

The pair exited, face to face with the river. It was an even more splendid sight up close; bright blue captured the ambient light like a prism and shattered it into glimmering shards below the surface. Umi watched two leaves tumble in from one of the weeping willows, dancing in delicate steps before being carried apart.

And before she knew it, the ashen haired girl was leading her off again. Around the cabin they went, out to the field.

Her hand slipped from Umi's grasp as they rounded the corner. Struck by the sight, Kotori ran ahead, relishing the feeling of the asphodel caressing her as she passed.

Umi could only watch in awe as the light hit the horizon. Her partner turned back in the field of yellow stars, herself the brightest one in their night sky.

"Umi, what are you waiting for?" she asked with a brilliant smile.

"Oh, nothing," Umi said, as she thought, " _If this was the last thing I ever saw, I wouldn't mind that."_

* * *

 **A/N: Here it is, the story I've been talking about in the A/N's of my last couple fics. If you like nature, overlong passages of description, Kotori, and Umi, you've come to the right place. This is going to be a longer, relaxed one with lots of pretty landscapes. I hope you enjoy it!**


	2. Wings

Umi hummed to herself in the shower.

It was only natural for a good morning to follow a great dream.

If only she could remember the details of it. The entire thing had been rapidly dissolving in her mind since she woke up. She had been walking in her own house, then there was desert, something about islands and flowers, and most importantly, a girl. It was all positive, she knew that much, yet she couldn't remember the why, or how, regarding any of it.

Had she actually gone through with Nozomi's suggestion? Had it worked?

The water began to grow cold and she finished up.

* * *

Umi opened the door to the student council room. It was after hours, as she preferred it.

"Oh, Umi," Eli began, taking notice of her, "you're looking much better."

" _Much_ ," Nozomi said, nodding in agreement. "Am I just getting cocky, or can I take that as my advice finally working?"

Eli cocked an eyebrow at that.

"I think so," the navy haired girl replied.

"You _think_?"

"I honestly don't remember it well at all, Nozomi."

Now Eli was giving her an " _I thought you were one of the sane ones_ "-look, but neglected to comment.

"Oh, of course. I had the same problem; it seems like it must be a pretty common one, then," the shrine maiden said thoughtfully. "I found that keeping a dream journal - well, not _dream_ per se, but you get the idea - was really helpful. Just something that you can keep next to your bed to record everything right when you wake up, when it's all still fresh in your mind."

Umi nodded, taking it all in, before Nozomi continued, "Oh, and make sure you get absolutely everything you can remember, even if it isn't all complete or sensical. Anyway, I was going to ask how your first time went, but I guess it's pointless for now."

The younger girl thought about it briefly.

"...I _can_ tell you that it was amazing."

Then Eli cleared her throat pointedly while taking the first paper off their stack of work, and the trio prepared to get started.

* * *

Umi sat up in bed; it was, ironically, hard to get to sleep from the excitement now that she actually wanted to do so. Knowing that all she could do was wait for the inevitable, she sighed and moved to roll over.

Thus coming face to face with herself.

The floor proved itself an unforgiving mistress as she went crashing down with a shrill note of terror and surprise. It took more than a moment to even register that this meant she was finally asleep.

" _That sight never gets less weird, does it?"_

She collected herself, taking one last look back as she walked out the door and-

" _...I forgot to change from my pajamas._ "

Umi wasn't so shameless as to think such an outfit was acceptable for company, but, she rationalized, there would be far stranger sights surrounding them, so surely it wouldn't matter _too_ much.

The eerie silence of the home swallowed her whole and spat her out into the desert for the second time. Also for the second time, she failed to stick the landing and ended up on all fours. This time, however, it was the notion to find Kotori again which spurred her from that warm and welcoming sand.

The golden path pulled her along, past Neptune once more until she was looking down into the crashing sand and the bridge between the islands. For only a moment she waited, breathing hard, before letting herself get carried down once more.

This time she managed to hit the ground running, only to slide to a halt as the vertigo overtook her.

"This can't kill me. This can't kill me. _This can't kill me._ "

Had the bridge gotten even longer, or was that just the acrophobia talking? Weak in the knees, Umi forced herself across the cracking path.

By the time she was on land once more, she found that she was more concerned with finding Kotori than the dizzying expanse below. The abruptness with which one could wake prevented her from asking what they would do to meet on future occasions.

She broke into a jog as the trees parted around her. No sweet notes floated on the breeze this time. Plunging deeper brought her to the edge of the clearing-

And face to face with a surprised looking Kotori.

"U-Umi!"

Perhaps it was silly to breathe a sigh of relief over a girl, who, realistically, she barely knew.

But she did, replying, "It's extremely fortunate that you also thought to come back here, Kotori," with a smile.

"It seemed to me like they only place we'd have a chance of meeting again, since you woke up so suddenly last time."

"Should we make this our meeting spot for the future?"

The ashen haired girl frowned for a moment in thought, "I feel like that cute little cabin by the river would be more special."

"Well..." mused Umi, slightly taken aback by the reasoning, "I guess it's a bit more fair since it's around an equal distance to each of our islands."

"Oh, that too!"

She was a smiling enigma, thought the navy haired girl, but an enigma nonetheless.

Perhaps she wouldn't be adverse to a little prying.

"You seem to know the ins and outs of projection," Umi began, "How long have you been doing it? If you don't mind my asking, that is."

Kotori had the skyward look of someone grappling with memories.

"Hm. It's been a while now. Maybe around a year? My island has passed through a bunch of cool places and by a bunch of people. Once you've been at it for a while, a big weeping willow, for example, is no big deal."

"C-clearly," said Umi, quietly embarrassed at the memory of her trembling at Kotori's feet.

"I remember my first time," the girl in question continued, "my island was right beside another, but there was this little gap between them that I was too afraid to cross. You could have done it with a particularly big step, but all I could think about was slipping and falling in! It just seems so silly looking back."

They stepped into the prairie as Umi countered, "My friend Nozomi taught me how to project, so I had something of an idea of what to expect going in. Still, I don't think any amount of explanation could have truly prepared me."

"Oh, lucky you!" Kotori said, "The girl who told me about this didn't stick around long." Suddenly bashful, she added, "This may sound a little weird, but we met randomly, like it was fate."

"Like fate?"

"I was coming home from school after all the clubs ended to study for this big English test. It was..." she frowned, "...probably just about sunset when I passed a shrine on the way and thought, 'a quick visit couldn't hurt'. I don't know if I looked intense while praying or what, but this weird shrine maiden came up and said it looked like I was 'searching for something'! Then she said she could show me how to 'bring my dreams to life' and told me about projection."

"Well..." Umi replied, "I suppose her claim was true, under certain interpretations."

"I'm grateful to her though, no matter how weird that was."

Letting a small grin break through, Umi said, "That sounds like something straight out of the pilot episode of an anime."

"' _A highschool girl meets a mysterious shrine maiden and is swept up in a magical world..._ '"

Kotori trailed off as they neared the edge of the island once more and the colossal weeping willow greeted them.

The navy haired girl gulped.

"I'll b-be fine this time. Please don't worry about me."

A minute later she was on the ground below, quivering while Kotori offered "there-there"'s and other such things. Shameless as it was to admit to, a small part of her was enjoying the attention. However, it wasn't long before the majority told her to rise and contribute.

Following the streams, the pair lapsed into silence, each thinking of the sight to come.

The grand riverbank was indeed as breathtaking as they remembered. This time, however, their momentum was broken. Both girls were eager to explore further. Asphodel tugged at their clothes as they crossed the radiant field behind the cabin, but they continued unabated.

Shortly, the flowers gave way to grass, which gave way to open air. This time, Umi spotted the way forward.

"There's...water below us."

A horizontal tube of water snaked through the air just below the lip of their island, passing under it.

She felt the anxiety beginning to settle in her stomach looking down again, not as potent as before, yet still powerful.

But then she felt Kotori's hand slip into her own. She turned to find the mysterious girl smiling sweetly at her, as if to say, " _Don't worry, I understand._ "

They stayed like that until the navy haired girl felt the bitter sensation dissolve.

"I believe I'm ready."

And she took the dive first.

Immediately, her stomach dropped, hair and clothes pulled taut and she had to hold back a scream. The water blended with the sky as she accelerated, and for a terrifying moment, she wasn't sure if she would hit it.

She felt it before she saw it. The sudden impact and resistance as she pencil-dove directly though the top. Her momentum carried her deep, and one leg pierced through the bottom and nearly dragged her though.

Kotori watched Umi's head reappear on the surface and wave her down. As was to be expected from her previous display, she managed to make it look easy.

A faint current pulled them, identified the water as a stream in the sky, and brought them under the island. It continued down, until they could see all the previous islands above them, and finally a new one below. Both surfaced at once for a breath and exchanged a look, already knowing their shared sentiment.

To see the glisten of water on sky, to swim through the ether like flying as they were cleared one's mind in a way Umi wouldn't have thought possible. The real world was light-years away.

And when the sky began to change like saturated pastels melting into each other, she could only dignify it with a gasp. The stream went vertical and carried them down towards a larger body of water below, and with each meter lost, she watched blue become purple, then rich amaranth.

They were deposited on the surface and carried ashore by gentle waves.

Umi propped herself up on her elbows to survey the situation. Kotori had washed up beside her, smiling sleepily in the warm sand. It was low tide; they were in the exposed home of the briny things. She watched the stream pour down from the sky, filling the tiny ocean until it overflowed off the island at the opposite end, where it tilted into the sky.

And most important of all: she was being held in perfect comfort.

Listening to the lapping waves and Kotori's gentle breathing, she closed her eyes.

* * *

 **A/N:** **You know, this didn't have as much exploration as it felt like when I was writing it, but hopefully you all enjoyed it still. I'll try to make chapter 3 a bit more adventurous. This thing is shaping up to be the second longest fic I've ever written, after Sunset.**


	3. Rowans

_"I was in my house near the start, and I think I was last time, too. I get in by falling into a desert; there was a cabin, a field of flowers, a giant tree. I remember there being a lot of water...and something about islands?_ "

Only a series of vague images actually made it to Umi's dream journal. Writing it was at least a little easier than she had expected, though, as she had been feeling remarkable well rested in the morning as of late.

" _And the girl was there. I just can't seem to remember her name, but I'm sure I met her before. I know that we're fond of each other._ "

"Think!"

But that was all she managed to tie down from the glut of dissolving images and feelings swirling about from the night. She placed the journal back on the nightstand and went about her morning.

If there was one thing that she was now sure of, it was that she definitely needed to go back.

* * *

The student council room was actually a little livelier with Eli gone. Perhaps, Umi thought, she kept Nozomi in check to a degree and focused on work.

"Alisa is running a bit of a fever, so Eli wanted to leave early to be with her. Don't worry though, the other girls picked up the slack and got us a bit ahead before they checked out," the twin-tailed girl had explained upon Umi's arrival. That quickly led into her asking about the previous night with a gleam in her eye, with the younger girl obliging as best she could.

"...and what do you mean when say you 'land' in the desert?"

"Well," Umi began, "I seem to remember that at first, I was in my house and had to exit into the other world."

"Yep. It's the same with me," Nozomi confirmed.

"Well my front door opened out into the air, maybe, I don't know, five feet up? It was fortunate that the sand was there to soften the landing."

Nozomi blinked. "Mine opens out of a rock at the foot of this little mountain. I thought that was pretty normal, but I guess I've only spoken to a handful of people about this, you included. But speaking of people," she added, "I'm more interested in this girl you're apparently running around with."

The girl Umi was still struggling to remember the name of. A dozen sounds and name fragments danced on the tip of her tongue. She could picture the girl introducing herself, could picture herself addressing the girl, but could otherwise barely remember a topic of conversation, and not at all recall the sound of her voice. "...Her," Umi began, "Yes, I met her on my first time; she was there this time as well. I remember her showing me around, helping me out. I seem to remember that she's experienced, and that we get along swimmingly. We explore together."

"Oh, very nice, very nice," Nozomi nodded, "It must be nice to have someone show you the ropes from the inside. It's too bad there doesn't seem to be any way to arrange a meet up, otherwise I'd go with you myself. But who knows, maybe our islands will close in?" She paused for a second, staring out the window. "I'm by myself right now in a pretty boring place; I hope the islands don't take too much longer to get going."

" _I wouldn't mind if they did._ "

* * *

Umi was laying spread eagle on the bed, hair half draped across her face, mouth wide open and drooling ever so slightly. Meanwhile, the Umi standing over the bed shivered, wondering in horror if she was always such an undignified sleeper. Did Honoka notice at their sleep overs? Perhaps some mysteries were better left unsolved.

She left post-haste, pulling off a serviceable landing and only ending up on her knees in the desert. This time, she neglected to stop and enjoy the scenery; she was too focused on first finding Kotori.

Gold sky gave way to blue as she met the sand-slide with only a short pause.

Chunks of stone dislodged themselves and spiraled down into the abyss as she hit the bridge running.

On the other side and firmly out of breath (which she confirmed to herself that she still needed), she allowed herself to drag her feet a little.

The vibrant woods welcomed her, but offered little that could have convinced her to stay a while. No sweet voice carried through the branches.

Before she knew it, she was out on the prairie, eyeing up the weeping willow again.

She sighed.

How many times was she going to have to do this? Was there really no other way?

Left and right revealed nothing useful connecting the islands until they peeled back from each other into space. But something else caught Umi's eye.

Come to think of it, hadn't Kotori said she had come from that direction? A palate of pure white and pale blue dusted the landmass, and the navy haired girl was nearly tempted to investigate there first.

 _No, no,_ she thought to herself, she couldn't keep the other girl waiting long.

Climbing down the weeping willow really wasn't so bad the third time.

Ok, no, it was still _really_ bad. But at least this time Umi still had the strength to stand, however feebly, once she had reached the ground below. Walking did not come so easily. She was shaking her head once she finally got moving again, thinking, " _inexcusable lateness_ " to herself.

People had told her that she was a "steady, deliberate type", but she still would have liked the opportunity to stop and smell the roses, in both senses, here. She wondered if it had been a fluke that Kotori had arrived before her the past two nights.

Did Kotori simply go to bed earlier?

They had to be in the same time zone if they were both speaking Japanese. Assuming that they were even really "speaking" out here to begin with, and had to know the same language.

" _When you're out there, you're just the spirit without the body,_ " Nozomi had explained, " _So if you meet anyone, you two can get a_ _ **real**_ _heart-to-heart going. It's almost romantic if you think about it."_

Umi wondered where Nozomi had learned all of this, or how she had figured it out. Perhaps her spirituality had earned her a little insight into the matter.

The earth rolled down beneath the navy haired girl's feet, and below she spied Kotori resting on the riverbank. Droplets caught the light as she kicked her feet pensively in the water, not hearing her friend's approach. A gentle clearing of the throat and the ashen haired girl jolted to her feet, turning with a wide smile.

"Finally, Umi!" she said, moving in for a quick hug.

Umi seized up, mind racing. " _Ok. Close your arms. Good. Uh, do I pat her back, or...? Am I supposed to squeeze a bit tighter? How come everyone but me seems to know how this works?!"_

And just like that, it was over again.

"I a-apologize if I kept you waiting t-too long."

"Oh, no, don't worry! You're not late, really, it just always feels long, when, um," it was now Kotori's turn to be bashful, "When I'm waiting...for you."

They both spent a minute looking anywhere other than each other before Umi spoke again, "Oh. Thanks? Uh, wait, I meant that like I'm n-not glad t-that it feels-"

Kotori, equally flustered, began rambling in turn, "I know, I know! I j-just didn't mean for it to come out like-"

"-long, just that the fact that you were waiting for me-"

"-that and I p-probably weirded you out there-"

"-it was j-just a thoughtful t-thing to say-"

"-and I just meant I look f-forward to seeing you!"

"And I appreciate how much you c-care!"

"...Thanks."

"...Thanks."

And then neither was able to speak to, or even look directly at the other for a considerable amount of time.

* * *

"Here it is."

Umi stared. As soon as they were able to function around one another again, Kotori had told her she'd discovered a message inside the cabin. The thing had been hiding in plain sight on the door frame, one of the few places they hadn't thought to look.

"...Interesting," Umi said. What she did not say was, " _That's some bathroom stall-tier nonsense,_ " like she was thinking.

Proudly carved into the wood was the phrase, " **Chika wuz here!** "

Deciding to be gentle, the navy haired girl simply said, "I don't think we have enough information to really make anything of it, unfortunately."

"Yeah," Kotori agreed, "it's pretty mysterious. Oh well."

Umi was glad to get back out into the sun. Really, she thought, there wasn't much point to staying in there when they were afforded this vastness.

"Say," she began, "would it be fine to see your home island, Kotori?"

"Totally! But we'd have to find a way back up, or wait until next time."

They looked back at the weeping willow looming over the island. It went without saying that they wouldn't be climbing it.

"...I think I can wait," Umi murmured.

Instead they crossed the fields and let themselves tumble through the sky and into the water. It took them back to the beach, and the navy haired girl had to hold herself back from lying down and drifting away once more. She wanted again to experience that brilliant sensation of discovery.

How long had the secret of projection been known, she wondered. Did the great explorers of the previous millennium do it? Did it give them their first, fateful taste?

She followed that instinct through the waves, to where the water overflowed from the lip of the island into the sky. As she had hoped, there was indeed another patch of green receiving the waterfall below. This time she didn't allow herself to freeze in fear; she looked back and nodded to Kotori before letting herself get carried over the edge.

Moss green slowly began bleeding into the sky as the water slowed halfway. Its drunken stagger, it seemed, was also reflected in the swamp it deposited her into. The trees bent whimsically, sprouting at odd angles from the water and wrapping about each other. Looking out, she could discern little of the island, and not just because of the trees either; the way the swamp's palette blended with the sky served to mask distances.

A series of splashes sounded behind her as Kotori tumbled in. Waist deep and clearly displeased about it, she lurched towards her navy haired partner.

"It's nicer than a real swamp, but this is still _super_ not ok," she said, pulling a sopping leaf from under her dress and pouting.

It definitely wasn't Umi's favourite island thus far, but she was trying to remain in a positive state of mind.

"Let's just see what we can see," she offered.

And so they slogged.

All things considered, it wasn't so bad once one got used to the muck between their toes. Still, it offered little in the way of enjoyment beyond the initial discovery.

"Umi?" Kotori said, looking to pass the time.

"Yes?"

"Is there any particular reason you project?"

Nozomi's grinning face came to mind as Umi replied, "I was keeping myself up worrying about the work I could have been doing. My friend Nozomi, the one who taught me, thought that I might get a proper amount of sleep if I had a reason to want to go to bed."

"She's right, Umi," Kotori replied, "it's no good to overwork yourself like that! Sometimes you just gotta get away from it all. That's part of the reason I'm so thankful to be able to come here, to be honest. It's hard out there in the real world, you know? It's hit me that my grades now are going decide where I'm able to go for the rest of my life, and that's really scary."

Umi could only nod to that. She had known that she shouldn't have been depriving herself of sleep, but idea of falling behind on her work and regretting it forever had been too frightening.

"When I'm here, all those worries just melt away. All I have to do explore."

"Out of sight, out of mind," the navy haired girl agreed.

The gray haired girl went silent behind her before adding, "There's an example just now; normally I'd feel the need to apologize over a little outburst like that, but here it's fine. It's just you and I, with all the time in the world."

"It's absolutely fine. We _are_ in the same boat, after all."

A water hyacinth floated past the two and vanished into the trees. Suddenly, Umi became aware of the faint current in the direction they were going. There were getting close to something. The water levels descended around their legs as the current grew alongside the sounds of rushing and crashing.

Then the ground began to curve inward slightly as they came upon the clearing.

A circular hole had been punched into ground, and the screen of water draining over its edge glistened with light from below. With Kotori "oh"-ing and "ah"-ing behind her, Umi approached the edge and peered down. The water pooled below, overflowing from a pit out into the surrounding cave.

"Look at this, Kotori," Umi began, "do you think we should-"

"No more swamp, please!" the girl in question cried, throwing herself in.

The navy haired girl shook her head and followed a moment later.

Inside, it was nearly blinding. Moreover, she wasn't sure if it could even be considered a cave. It looked more like something had removed a slice of the island, leaving only regular pillars of stone to hold the top layer. The water flowed outwards in all directions towards to distant edges of the island, sending the light back to the center.

Kotori seemed to retreat into herself after a moment of staring out. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly as she said, "It's been quite a while now. I think it'll be morning soon."

"You can tell?"

"I have somewhat of a feel for it, now that I've been doing this for a while," she said.

"I see," Umi replied quietly, "it's never long enough, is it? It's unfortunate that we can't meet out there for real."

And then Kotori burst into a wide smile, glinting off the water ever so slightly.

"About that...who says we can't? We're both Japanese, aren't we? The distance between us can't be that great. I live in Akihabara."

Umi nearly choked. The unreal scenery around her faded into the background as she returned Kotori's stare.

"Y-you...you're in my area," she sputtered, "I attend Otonokizaka."

At this, they ashen haired girl surged forward and seized her hands and nearly shouting out, "That's wonderful! I go to UTX; why don't we meet after school some time? I happen to know the best maid cafe in town."

Umi paused for a moment before replying, "The only problem will be somehow remembering this and making contact for real."

"Oh, true," Kotori said, spirits dampened, but only slightly, "But if what we have isn't 'real', well, then I don't know what is."

And it seemed that on that day, she instead was the first to awaken. Umi watched, first in fright, then in amazement, as the other girl's outline seemed to blur against the light flooding in from behind her, smearing into indistinct humanoid colour, then fading out entirely.

What little time was left for Umi was spent wandering, wondering if this faint, aching loneliness was what Kotori had experienced the previous nights.

* * *

 **A/N: I intended to post this a few days ago, whoops. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this one. Tell me what you think!**


	4. Gleaming Ranks

**NOTE: It's gonna be yuri now (eventually). The reviews have swayed me.**

* * *

" ** _Kotori_** **.** "

It was furiously circled and underlined in the dream journal. With a name like that, surely she had to be Japanese. Maybe they could meet? Maybe Umi had already realized that but couldn't remember.

She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, wondering what else there was to be written.

More exploration, they had gone somewhere different. They had talked near a riverside cabin. The details of the landscape were starting to solidify in her mind. There were floating islands with different environments, like that desert, for instance. As for the giant tree, the navy haired girl was quite sure, to her dismay, that she had been forced to climb it.

The advancement of her memory was moving far too slowly. Even bending all her efforts towards Kotori yielded precious little; it was a struggle to remember anything they had actually _done,_ even though where they had gone was clearing up.

She frowned. She didn't have much time before school started.

* * *

"So you finally managed to remember it, huh? Kotori's a pretty fateful-sounding name, I think. You sure talk a lot about her for how little you remember."

"Well..." Umi said, attempting to wrangle the hazier images from the other side, "I guess she's just one of the most interesting parts of projecting."

Nozomi offered a smug smile, "That's pretty high praise considering you two are exploring another world together. Are you sure you aren't just feeling something a little special for her?"

At that, the pen slipped from Umi's hand as she sputtered, "D-definitely not! I haven't even known her very long...not that I would even consider some sort of weird, magic, shameless, clandestine romance like that!"

"Of course, of course," the older girl replied with a giggle.

Eli overlooked the pair with a cocked eyebrow, resigned to skepticism, yet taken in by their chatter on the topic. "Listen," she interjected, "I know we're done enough for the day, but I'd like to free up some extra time for the student council for the next few days." With that, she began pulling sheets from the next pile of club forms.

"Don't worry Elicchi, we haven't forgotten about you either."

The blonde girl blushed but otherwise didn't crack; clearly, Umi noted, she was vastly more experienced in dealing with Nozomi. Eli cleared her throat before somewhat shakily replying, "I'm not worried. I know you can't keep me off your mind."

Then it was Nozomi's turn to blush, and in that moment, Umi realized she was witnessing a true clash of titans.

" _As to be expected of third years..._ " she thought.

But alas, it wasn't long before Eli began to lose ground, and the navy haired girl didn't have the nerve to tell them to stop flirting.

"... _while_ playing Twister!"

With the third member of their group now a proper blushing mess, they resumed talking about astral projection while the younger girl tried to pretend she hadn't heard that shameless banter.

"I'm excited for sure," Nozomi said, "I've just been able to see a new island approaching in the distance, so hopefully I won't be stuck for too much longer. Maybe we could even end up together this time."

"That would be nice..." Umi murmured distractedly. " _But_ ," she thought, " _it also means I don't have much time left._ "

* * *

One might expect to stop being surprised by the sights of the other world after gaining some experience. But Umi found herself staring in puzzlement at the window hanging in the air at the crest of a sand dune along the path. In it could be seen a snow-capped forest of giant conifers swaying under a dreary sky.

An impulse took her, but there was no way to open window, and she wasn't willing to try and break it.

Things really were changing.

Momentary vertigo washed over her as she stepped onto the bridge shortly after. A line of blue stared back from between her feet. The cracks were widening.

She hurried across the field and through the forest on the other side, stepping over the divide between the islands.

Waving at her distantly was a certain figure. Up close, Kotori's gentle smile greet her in all its beauty.

"Would you like to see my island this time?" she asked.

"I would love to."

The hovering white form suggested a cloud, but as they drew close to the edge of the prairie, it resolved itself into a boreal landmass. Like Umi's desert, a worryingly long and narrow bridge linked it to the "mainland", if it could be called as such.

The grey haired girl paused in front of the bridge and turned to stop them momentarily.

"Just be really careful here, okay?" she said, "The bridge is a little bit...melty."

And indeed, Umi couldn't help but note with concern the way the sides sloped down and away from them, carrying rivulets of water into the sky. It was slippery; she decided that following her partner's lead and shuffling was safer than trying to walk.

Pale gray wove itself into the sky as they went, and before long, snowflakes were gliding out to meet them.

Why did it seem like the wind was always strongest in the most precarious positions? She felt her body angle ever so slightly as the wind slid her sideways.

Fortunately, they were almost across.

The ashen haired girl stepped off into the powdery snow, turned back and saying, "Make sure when you're getting off that you watch your-"

As Umi lifted her foot to step down to the island, she felt her weight shift, her entire body sliding sideways. Her arms pinwheeled, she choked on her own breath.

And then Kotori caught her hand and yanked her forward.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself in the cool snow, atop something very soft, and very warm. Lifting her head revealed a pair of Amber eyes mere centimeters from her own. Her heart was pounding.

From that ordeal, of course. _Definitely_ that.

Kotori was blushing, or maybe her cheeks were just flushed from the cold, and she distinctly avoided acknowledging their entanglement when she spoke.

"Looks like I saved the day, huh?"

"Y-you...you _saved_ me."

"Don't worry about it, Umi, I know how much it sucks to get a rude awakening like that so-"

" **Oh**."

Kotori tilted her head, "What is it?"

Umi, in the heat of the moment, swore she had seen her life flashing before her eyes. Now she merely felt silly. _Of course_ , she thought, a person couldn't die here.

"Um...nothing. I just wanted to thank you for that. It would be a shame for our night to get cut short."

"Like I said, it was no trouble at all," Kotori said, "Now, if you get maybe get off me...?" she added in a sickeningly cute tone.

" _Stonewall, Umi,"_ the navy haired girl thought, " _Keep your composure._ "

And so she made a noise halfway between a panicked excuse and choking on her own tongue, righted herself, and tried her damnedest to purge the thoughts of how soft and warm the other girl had been.

" _Nice, Umi._ "

Kotori rose beside her, lightly blushing, but still smiling gently and cheerfully as ever. She swept her arm out before them, saying, "Here we are! My 'home'."

It had all the warmth of a deep winter on Christmas Eve. The wind and snow against their skin was merely a pleasant, brisk cool, and even that was in pleasant contrast to the occasional warmth of sunlight shafts breaking through the clouds. Immediately before them, the snowdrifts almost mirrored Umi's desert in sugar-white. That impression was shattered when one looked out and saw the crags on the horizon, painted with pale blue strokes of ice down their height.

The navy haired girl searched for a moment before deciding on saying, "It's lovely."

Kotori was gazing dreamily out over it all.

"Let me show you my favourite part," she said.

Snow crunching underfoot, she led the way over the hills and deeper inland.

"And my door opens right near it so-" she paused, "Do you have a door as well? Is that how it works for everyone? I've never asked before."

"I have one, at least. Unfortunately, it's in the air and I have to jump to get to the first island," Umi replied.

Kotori's (perfectly shaped and groomed, Umi noticed) eyebrow quirked at that as she briefly looked back, "Huh. Isn't that weird? Mine opens out of the cliff face ahead; I thought they all had to be on a surface. Just who makes the rules around here?" she said.

As they drew closer, the lines of the cliff resolved into patterns on the face and intricate free designs of ice.

"The question of who makes the rules for the universe is a pretty contentious one."

"I guess that was a silly question. It's just impossible to get over how everything... _ **is**_ over here. Oh! Here, prime example."

They came to the crest of one last hill and paused.

"Here's where I wanted to take you," the ashen haired girl said.

The waterfall was frozen to the face of the cliff, caught in its decent to the small lake below. Frozen splashes scintillated where it merged with the surface, iced ripples forming concentric rings of alternating dark and light sparkling blue.

"Do you know how to skate, Umi?"

"No," she replied.

And then she pretended that she didn't hear Kotori say, "Good..." under her breath.

The gray haired girl pranced to the edge and effortlessly slid out, perfectly matching her linear and angular momentum to come to a halt just as she came to face Umi again. She offered a hand and called out, "Well then, let's have lots of fun teaching you!"

* * *

Sprawled out on the ice, Umi wondered if trying to skate barefoot was easier or harder than doing it with actual skates. Kotori had opted to pull her to the edge of the ice rather than fall into what she called the "romantic comedy-skating-trap-cliche": the offering of an inexperienced skater a hand up, only to be pulled down on top of them.

Well, at least it was sort of relaxing.

The other girl's hand was warm in hers and she stared, eyes half lidded at the shifting blotted patterns in the sky.

A change in friction roused her, and she stood back on the edge of ice beside Kotori.

"Well," she said, "that's to be expected of your first time; don't get down about it."

Umi nodded, smiling. A small part of her was surprised by how gently her heart was beating. She was well aware of her nervous streak, especially when other people were involved and watching. Was it this place, or was it Kotori having this effect?

And if it was the latter, then she had to be time-conscious.

"Say, Kotori," Umi began, "are you having any luck remembering when you wake up?"

She pouted the tiniest amount, "No. It's tough, and the going is pretty slow even with my journal. I think we'll just have to keep reinforcing the things we want to remember in here."

Umi nodded as the other girl walked around her, back facing the frozen lake.

"Burn me into your memory, Umi" she said with a wink which _definitely_ didn't make the quiet girl's heart to leap into her throat. The picture perfect scene of Kotori framed by the white, the cliff, and the blue helix of the falls was enough that the fact that she wasn't done speaking escaped Umi for a second. "...and that I live in Akihabara. When we meet up, I know the _cutest_ little maid cafe we could go to! So make extra sure you burn it into your memory!"

"I'm trying, Kotori, I really am," she said.

The girl's brow tightened momentarily in thought for an moment, before she replied, "How about I give you a charm to help?"

Umi tilted her head and opened her mouth to speak, and in that instant, Kotori leaned in and gave her a peck on the cheek.

"How's that?" she giggled. "...Umi?"

The girl in question was pretty sure the spot on her cheek was on fire as she gawked and mentally pinwheeled. Then she noticed it was both cheeks. And her ears. And her neck. Actually, her whole face was steaming.

Finally, she managed a nod before laying down in the snow once more.

* * *

 **A/N: Have you ever watched Flip Flappers? Or read The Love Live manga? Those, and lots of other things have super strong yuri undertones that never go anywhere, and I initially envisioned this story in that vein. Now I realize that doing that is sort of pointless here, so hats off for romance!**


	5. October

Just who was Kotori? Umi could feel the corners of her mouth quirking up as she the name crossed her mind, even though she still only had an impression of the girl.

They had been exploring, but that was nothing new. What was, was the extremely distant memory of a comforting hand on her back, matched with a soothing voice in her ear. Yes, she was certain could remember Kotori comforting her over something, could remember the smoothly textured voice and reassuring words.

Her pencil trailed off of in a spiral.

How, she wondered, was one to qualify that voice? It was possible to pile on flashy, hollow descriptors enough to express some semblance of what she remembered.

But instead she just wrote "silver bell".

* * *

Umi would have been lying had she said Eli's distractedness didn't amuse her a little. Despite a professed lack of interest in such things, she had, several times now, been weaned away from her work to listen to her underclassman and and vice-president conversing.

"I feel for you, though," Nozomi said, nodding, "a few months ago it happened that my island let me meet up with this girl named Hanayo. She was just _so_ sweet and adorable; I was sad to see her go."

Umi frowned slightly, "Isn't it strange that we always seem to end up with other Japanese people?"

"I did meet one...potentially foreign girl. I couldn't tell if her name was Mary or Mari. It makes you wonder if you're really speaking to the person, or if it's some sort of, like, spiritual communication."

And the navy haired girl reflected on that once more.

* * *

It was a shame, Umi thought as the sand-slide jettisoned her onto the bridge, that she couldn't bring Kotori to her home island. The signs, the sky, the relaxing warmth of the sand, all had come into comforting familiarity to her, and she would have relished the chance to spend a night relaxing there with the other girl.

Oh well. Having her own little sanctuary was hardly something to complain about.

Although, it would have been nice to spend a little more time exploring these woods where they first met; she had since been hurrying through to meet the other girl.

And tonight again, she found herself standing at the riverside, where Kotori was splayed out in the grass, eyes closed.

Umi cleared her throat and got no reaction.

"Kotori...?"

Nothing.

" _Is she sleeping...in her sleep? Is that even possible? Does that mean she's actually awake?_ "

"I was super relaxed there and not really paying attention, sorry," Kotori murmured, staring up with half lidded eyes and stretching. "What do you want to do tonight?"

Adventurousness was still a rather new emotion to the navy haired girl, but it was one she was coming to revel in. She looked across the river.

"Maybe there will be some new territory across the way."

Looking about revealed-

"K-Kotori!"

The other girl was already hiking up her skirt and wading in, shrugging off the lethargic flow. Hearing the other girl's call she looked back and tilted her head as though it were the most natural thing in the world, prompting Umi to join her before the question could even be posed.

On the other side, the ground incline upward steeply, the trees thinning out as it grew higher.

Her legs were beginning to burn.

They could now see the cabin over the trees below them.

Umi mentally began counting minutes.

Had she ever climbed a hill so large in her entire life?

Finally, panting, they reached the crest. A florid valley opened itself to them, with all the gentle splendor of an impressionist masterwork. The sun played over the crests such as to create a column of light down the center, flanked by drawn out cool-colors where the earth began to slope.

The pair looked at each other and Kotori sat down to overlook it without a word. Umi sat beside her and Kotori lied down without a word.

Then she stretched her arms over her head, and began to roll down the slope, still without a word.

The navy haired girl stared until the other girl was about halfway down before deciding it was in her best interest to roll as well.

Come to think of it though, she had never been partial to this as a child.

And then when she was about halfway down a single thought lazily, yet incredibly clearly, drifted though her mind, " _Wow, I feel like I'm about to die._ "

She was going way too fast, she was dizzy, the world was a blur of colour, and no matter how she tried to pull her arms in, she couldn't get round enough to roll totally smoothly.

There was some sort of ugly, oscillating wail in air, and she really hoped she wasn't making it.

It went on.

And on.

She shouldn't have tried this on the tallest hill she had ever seen. The ground leveling out merely subjected her to a cruel and uncomfortable new gravity.

By the time her momentum was finally gone, her entire being had been reduced to nothing more than grass stains and terror.

But at least Kotori was lying next to her.

"Gosh, it's probably been at least five years since I did that last-

...Umi?"

She could hardly see straight, which probably lent a certain lack of conviction to her reply of, "I'm g-good. D-don't worry."

Kotori either believed that, or more likely, was too polite to say anything.

In either case, she resumed, aimlessly talking through childhood memories with the easy gait of a falling leaf. Eventually, she circled back around to her school life, her friends and the real reason she knew "the best maid cafe in Akihabara".

"...and everyone knows me as Minalinsky."

Umi contemplated how to say, " _I'd like to see you in a French maid outfit_ " with being creepy.

Nope, not happening.

And after what seemed like only minutes, Kotori was blurring against the sky and ground before vanishing entirely.

The navy haired girl closed her eyes and waited.

* * *

 _Kotori_.

She was smiling to herself through the early morning stupor reading the name.

 _We went...somewhere temperate. I remember doing something I regretted._

 _There's something I was supposed to remember about Kotori, or on her behalf._

She almost wanted to go back to sleep in hopes of meeting her again.

* * *

Nozomi was humming quietly to herself as she worked, and looking at her, Umi was struck by the thought that the older girl could have been an idol in another universe.

"Nozomi," she said, "if all this is really astral projection projection the way you described it, what does your body do without a soul?"

The council vice-president paused, looking out the window.

"That's a good question. We can try to figure it out if you wanna have a sleep-over with me," she said in a sing-song voice.

"I'll, uh, check my schedule."

"Oh, don't get the wrong idea," Nozomi said, eyes twinkling, "I'm not trying to come between you and your _astral-girlfriend_."

Some part of Umi knew that she was walking into the trap when she stood up and said, "She is _not_ my g-girlfriend!" But that part was no match for the flustered side.

"What is Kotori then?"

"She's just my-"

"Your dream girl?"

Umi was faintly aware of Eli stifling a giggle at that as she replied, "No! Well, uh, sort of. But not how you're implying!"

"Yet it seems to me that you have her on the brain an awful lot."

"Well that's because..." the younger girl said, slowing down as it came back to her slightly, "I feel like there's something I'm _supposed_ to be remembering about her, but I just can't manage to do it."

At that, the vice-president calmed, drumming her fingers lightly on the the deck of tarot cards ever present on her person and thinking. After a moment she said, "What I believe that means is either she requested you do something in this world, or you discovered something important about her that necessitates you acting here." Umi nodded before she continued, "In either case, there's something you're supposed to do, but I can't help you much regarding what that might be, or why."

* * *

" _Something I'm supposed to do..._ "

She was staring at the ceiling, eyes unfocused, wracking her brain.

What she she supposed to remember?

She could see herself talking with Kotori, smiling, laughing.

What were they talking about?

* * *

Her intention had been to merely close her eyes for a moment to think, but she now found herself running her fingers over a Saturn sign in the desert.

It was time to see Kotori again.

She moved quickly, stumbling over the gaps and cracks in the bridge, ignoring her sense of wonderment over her surroundings.

The climb down the weeping willow remained daunting, but she was able, at least, to do it rather quickly now.

And before she knew it, Kotori was there with her perfect smile and gentle eyes.

"Tonight," she said, pointing to the river "I want to see where this goes."

Gradually, the trees thinned out and the earth become softer as they moved towards the end of island. Before them, the water branched out into the sky, dyed in its blue. One stream fell and bent leftward, presumably over to the beach island they had reached earlier. There were yet two more, and they took the one traveling relatively straight forward to an island slightly above them.

Umi swallowed her fear once more as she tried to focus on the shadow above her over the expanse below. Soon, though, she felt an unusual pull towards it; the water was flowing upwards. She felt herself pulled with it though a tunnel in the bottom and her vision was snuffed but for glimmers of light below and above her. Then, without warning, she was jettisoned into the air on a stream, landing in the soft soil around the geyser.

Kotori was seconds behind her and none too happy about her clothes being splattered in wet earth. Still, it only took a moment for her demeanor to soften as she took in their surroundings.

As they wandered through arches and tunnels the navy haired girl was reminded of her conversation with Nozomi from the previous day.

"Hey Kotori," she said, "how many other people have you met out here?"

The other girl paused for a moment before replying, "Only a handful. Let's see...there was Chika. She was fun. Tons of energy and she never stopped talking. There was this girl named Dia. She seemed really serious and cold at first, but she it turned out that she was a dork with a thing for idols. Really nice once you got to know her. I didn't end up staying with any of them as long as I've been here with you, though."

The other girl nodded as Kotori continued, "I think it's pretty uncommon to meet someone else out here. You must be really lucky to have run into me on your first day!"

"Yes...I really was."

Faintly, she could here Kotori reply, "I feel the same."

* * *

 **A/N: We're probably around the 3/4 mark here, and I swear the yuri will finally be here within 2 chapters. Anyway, this came a little late because of exams, but hopefully you guys enjoyed it!**


	6. Prayers in the Shade

" _Kotori...Kotori_ "

What good was writing down details about the landscape when she couldn't remember what she was supposed to do?

She spent the morning scrolling through hundreds of social media profiles, wondering if the name Kotori had always been so popular, and she was just now noticing it.

Oh, of course. She had to find a way to reach Kotori.

* * *

"Umi...is everything alright?"

Gentle fingers dancing across her back roused her from her concentration and she found Nozomi looking down at her.

"Sorry, I was just thinking about the Kotori situation again."

"We're listening if you need to talk, right Eli?"

The blonde's head popped up at that and she replied, "To be honest, I'm still really confused about what's happening, but yes, I'm listening."

Slowly, Umi slumped down over the table, saying, "I _think_...I'm pretty sure the thing I'm supposed to do is contact, or talk to, or somehow meet Kotori in real life. But how am I going to do that? All I have is her first name and a general idea of what she looks like, everything else is too hazy. How can I find her with so little to go on?"

The two student councils members looked at eachother and thought for a moment.

Finally, Eli replied, "It seems to me that you can only either get more information, or make an educated guess and go where you think she's most likely to be."

Nozomi nodded and added in, "Have your teachers ever told you about that study showing that if you're not sure about a multiple choice question, your first instinct is often right?"

Umi nodded.

"Well, you said the rest is hazy, but at least _something_ is there. There's always a chance that you'll stumble across something that'll kickstart your intuition, so try not to get discouraged so soon."

* * *

There was a hole in the bridge where it had begun to separate from itself. Umi leapt across, vertigo washing up as she looked down into the expanse.

Shortly thereafter, she met up with Kotori and the two journeyed across the river and over the hill again, finding where the valley reached the edge of the island. A gray stone bridge connected it there to an imposing island of jagged, barren mountains. Padding across the unyielding stone led them though sheer drops and ascents in turn, and over smooth planes of stone, colliding like tectonic plates.

Despite a scraped knee or two, laughter abounded under that steel-gray sky. It was Umi's turn to expound on her life, discussing her life at Otonokizaka, her friends, her family and dojo. Kotori nodded along, working to memorize everything she could in hopes of retaining it when she woke up.

* * *

Umi wondered if this was how it felt to be an amnesiac, scribbling tidbits about Kotori in her journal, yet painting their relationship in broad strokes, unable to remember the conversations that developed it.

She sighed, putting down her pencil and getting ready for school.

* * *

Nozomi and Eli were chattering, while Umi kept her head down and worked. She had nothing to say today, only details to wrack her brain over.

For a feverish moment, she began conjuring up random topics and images in hopes that one would remind her of something about Kotori, but quickly realized how futile and unlikely it was.

Before she knew it, the council president was packing up to leave, and she began preparing as well.

Right before she left, she caught the eye of Nozomi, who simply said, "Good luck on your search!"

* * *

The navy haired girl gulped.

This was still safe, wasn't it? It had to be.

The center of the bridge had broken away and was floating, bobbing slightly, yet still in-line with the grounded ends.

Her head spun as the stone under her feet dipped a fraction and the wind seemed to pick up. With fists clenched, she forced herself to look only at her feet as she inched forward, until she was finally forced to leap to land once more.

Maintaining a brisk pace in spite of her trembling legs, she strode through the fruitful island, slowing only in the forest clearing when the memory of their first meeting replayed, as it always did. With the pleasant sensation of the tall grass tickling her legs and Kotori's snowcapped island gleaming in the distance, Umi managed to avoid ruminating on the weeping willow too much. This wasn't to say she entirely competent at climbing it now, merely that even without the other girl's help, she no longer panicked.

Following the river down, she broke into a jog as her excitement grew.

Breaking out over the crest of the emerald hill, she spied Kotori below, gently kicking her feet in the water from her seat on the bank. The navy haired girl trailed down behind her, stopping to make eye contact in the reflection from over her head. Kotori leaned back against her legs and looked up at her, saying, "Care to stay here with me for tonight? I didn't see anywhere else we could go to."

The other girl nodded and sat down beside her. As long as they were together, she wouldn't mind if-

She stopped herself; the sappy, embarrassing thoughts simply would not leave her alone.

"Staying like this is nice, too. This spot is as beautiful as ever."

That, she thought, was probably the least embarrassing of the things she had wanted to say at that moment.

The grass was cool against back and she wasn't quite sure at what sure point she and Kotori had fallen back together, staring at the sky. Distantly, she was aware of the other girl's hand tracing gentle patterns on her arm as she asked, "Umi, do you really believe all this is real?"

"...Yes," she thought further for a moment as Kotori hummed thoughtfully beside her, "I'm not one to remember my dreams very well, but I know they've always been boring. I've never dreamed anything like this, and I don't think I could manage to dream up someone like you."

Her eyes were still gliding over the sky's gradient, but she could feel Kotori smiling beside her.

"Then," the grey haired girl replied, "do you think these are really our souls out here?"

That gave Umi pause as she considered it.

"I...suppose I do. I can't even begin to explain any of this, and I don't know of any other explanations...Why do you ask?"

No response came for a time, then she heard Kotori say, "Umi, look here for a second."

Umi let her head roll to the side and-

The other girl's lips were pressing softly against her own.

She was frozen, awash in a sea of light. Distantly, she could feel Kotori's fingers threading themselves through her hair. Only the most basal of thoughts floated to the top of her mind.

 _Warmth._

Then, after precious few seconds had passed, it was over once more and Kotori pulled away, offering her a tender look, as if it had been the most natural thing in the world.

And for a part of Umi, it had been. She had wanted it; she knew not when the desire had first come to be, but it was there nevertheless.

"I asked because I was wondering if we've broken into heaven," Kotori said.

* * *

She awoke in the grip of an indelible, simultaneous warmth and longing. Her pen lay untouched at her side as she tried to piece together the fading images. They were close, had been close, and clearer than any sight was an deep impression of tenderness in her memory.

There was nothing to assuage the niggling question at the back of her mind, however.

" _How am I supposed to find her?_ "

* * *

Umi offered a vague reply to the murmuring at the edge of her awareness and completed another form.

It might have been relaxing, the scratching of pencils, the quiet conversation with Nozomi and Eli, had she not not been thinking about Kotori again.

Suddenly, an idea struck her.

"Nozomi, who did you learn to project from?"

"My grandma. Even as a kid, I was skeptical at first, but once I got it to work myself, it opened up the world of spirituality to me," the Vice President relied.

"So you don't know any other people who do it? Or some sort of network?" Umi asked.

"Nope, sorry. I think you'll have to look online in hopes of forums or something."

Well, it had been worth a try.

Nozomi cleared her throat and looked up at Umi before adding, "By the way, I know you seem to have your heart set on it, but if you can't find Kotori, don't worry about it. Try to appreciate what you had. There's always more fish in the sea, you know?"

Eli also looked up at that, adding, "Don't let this get you down."

Umi thanked them and kept her head down thereafter.

* * *

With the blankets kicked off, she had retreated into a chilly, strained-looking fetal position. Unfortunately, her astral form found the fabric too heavy to move back into position and she was forced to leave.

She kept a brisk pace though her house, anticipating the warmth of the sand beneath her feet. When she found it however, something else quickly stole her attention.

In the opposite direction from the signs and her usual path, a massive shape loomed over the horizon. Her foot were moving of their own volition to the crest of the dune to reveal the other end of the island. There, she found the sand slowly coalescing into arenite, stretching a tendril towards a new landmass. The towering redwoods of the other island swayed slightly as it continued a glacial approach towards her own.

She turned back as the smile played across her features and set out on her path.

Neptune was particularly spastic that day, and the window was gone once again. Ahead, the sand-flow had slowed considerably, and she let it gently carry her down to the bridge's edge

Or at least, what little of it remained.

Entire chunks had fallen away, and the jagged shapes remaining hung gently in space, bobbing slightly. Umi felt as though the ground had fallen out beneath her.

She wasn't ready to leave.

"This can't kill me. This can't kill me. This can't kill me."

With the image of the weeping willow in her mind, she inhaled sharply and leapt. The sky cavorted in nervous anticipation in tandem with her stomach as her arms pinwheeled through the open air.

All at once, she was aching, gasping, and clinging on for dear life as the chunk she landed on flew forwards. When the impact came, she let it roll her forward and seized two fistfuls of the thick grass to anchor herself until the world stopped whirling. Once it had, she broke into a run, the pastels of the world around her blurring into impressionism.

The clearing was empty. She ran faster.

Over the prairie, straight past the weeping willow.

Into a wave of crushing numbness as she saw the melted bridge.

A majority of it in the centre was gone entirely, while the grounded ends rapidly tapered down to nothing.

She stood there in disbelief as time blurred, staring into the falling snow on the other side, but no figure emerged from it. Finally, having seen all she needed, she dragged herself back to the weeping willow and threw herself down. Distantly, the great drop below called to her, but she could only regard it dispassionately. Finally, she arrived at the bottom, hands raw and feet heavy.

Her eyes followed the water down, and when she emerged over the crest of the hill, the riverbank was empty. Stumbling down the incline, she found herself slowly approaching the entrance to the cabin.

It only took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness inside and confirm the worst. No objects left behind, no scrawlings, no final message carved with the others into the doorframe.

Umi dragged herself back into the light and slumped down at the water's edge.

The wind had calmed almost entirely, and the only sounds came from the water and her own breathing. She cleared her throat and noticed how the vastness didn't allow for even an echo.

And for the first time, she slowly looked around and noticed just how empty the other world was.

Kotori never came.

* * *

 **A/N: I find it really difficult to really do justice to the climactic moments of romances, but I hope you all enjoyed it here. Stay tuned.**


	7. Geography

The details were't quite clear, but the sinking feeling in her chest elucidated everything she needed to know.

"She was gone," Umi wrote, hand shaking slightly.

* * *

"Have you seen Umi?"

Eli looked up from her paper and frowned, taking notice, "No, I haven't, actually. Is she ok?"

Shortly thereafter, Eli received a text from Umi saying that she wasn't feeling well and wouldn't be able to help.

* * *

Umi looked up from a half written equation, wondering idly if Eli and Nozomi had gotten on fine without her. As much as she was loathe to walk away from them like that, she didn't think she would have been able to handle Nozomi inevitably cracking her and asking her about the previous night.

As the cars outside began to pass with less frequency and the streetlights came alive, she found her eyelids beginning to droop. When she stood to go to bed, she stood out of her own body.

Very well.

She supposed she must have gotten into the habit of doing it such that she didn't need to consciously try anymore.

It was silent. For the first time, she noticed that there was _nothing_ outside her window.

She glided down the hall and left herself fall into the sand outside her front door. Her limbs were leaden; having sunken to a satisfying depth already, she willed the desert to simply swallow her. Once it became clear that it had no such intentions, she slowly pulled herself back to her feet and lurched to the path.

Without the crashing sand in the distance, a vast, vacuum-like silence weighed upon her.

Had the walk always been this long?

Her sunken gaze slipped over the signs.

There was nothing to meet her gaze as she came to the crest of the final dune. The bridge was now well and truly gone.

"Ah."

" _Why would you have expected anything different?_ " she asked herself.

And once she had crossed the desert once more, she felt a muted curiosity at the sight of the newly forming bridge. The bittersweetness at her memories of previous nights was now informing her that she didn't merely want to go back, she wanted to replay her experiences with Kotori.

* * *

The dream journal remained unopened for several consecutive nights.

* * *

" _Hello?_ "

"Umi?"

" _Yes?_ "

"Are you sure you're ok? Do you want us to visit you? You haven't dropped by in days."

" _No, no, you don't have to worry about me. I'll come back once I'm feeling a bit better._ "

"Hey...if this is actually about your workload, it's fine if you're just too busy to help right now. Our feelings won't be hurt or anything; we can handle the student council work."

" _Really, I'll be fine. I think I'll be back within a few days._ "

"Ok, we'll take your word on it."

Eli hung up and shrugged. Nozomi furrowed her brow.

* * *

Umi lay curled on her side in the sand.

Through half-lidded eyes, she watched the final stages of the new bridge's construction.

She wasn't ready to get up yet.

She shifted, feeling more of the warm particulate pour over her, and focused on the mind-numbingly gradual shifting of the sand across the sky ahead.

* * *

The navy haired girl hesitated with her hand on the door to the student council room.

Pulling out her phone, she skimmed over an inane text from Honoka and looked at the rings under her eyes. Then she turned and walked away, telling herself that tomorrow would be the day.

The principal walked by, and for one glorious second, she was convinced that it was Kotori. It was a striking resemblance from what the image she could hold onto of the girl, which only made it harder when reality came knocking immediately after.

Was she losing her mind?

It had been days since her last good sleep and she was plagued regularly with fantasies.

Throwing opening the front doors of the school, she stepped out into a cool spring day. If she couldn't focus anyway, she figured, there could be no harm in taking a long stroll to try and clear her head.

Come to think of it, wandering like this wasn't much to different from what they-

" _No, no. Don't think about that._ "

There was something calming about the rhythm of her feet against the pavement. As she walked, the din of noise from the other students faded away.

Akihabara's bright lights in the distance still weren't quite as beautiful or saturated as the ones in her dreams...

Umi shook head head, deciding that the noise and bustle of the electric town were exactly what she needed. Still, even as she entered the district proper, the blaring music and advertising calls rung distant and hollow, and the sights weren't enough to distract her from the sky.

Before she knew it, she was sprawled on the pavement beside a maid she hadn't noticed.

Once the two had collected themselves, the girl offered her a flier which she felt too guilty to refuse.

" _Tea Angels?"_ Umi read, nearly tripping over the curb as her eyes traced the patterns. Ordinarily, she would consider going to a maid cafe far too shameful a use of her time, but once she was standing in front of the place, she suddenly became aware of the powerful itch to investigate.

Entering with poster in hand, she was whisked away to a table with a menu waiting.

" _Angel cake...tea...milk shakes..."_

She needed something more overbearing. A maid with glasses stood dutifully by to accept her order.

"I'll have a deluxe parfait, please."

The girl nodded, writing it on her note pad and assuring Umi that it would be brought shortly.

She deflated slightly and leaned back in her chair. The place was so twee, with its vintage cottage-style furniture, sweets and French maids that it was almost obnoxious. Well suited to keeping one distracted.

Still, it was difficult keeping her mind's wanderings tightly reigned.

It couldn't hurt to get a little homework done, especially when it would keep her busy. Drawing her books and supplies from her bag, she threw herself into her work.

English, loathe as she was to do it.

She pushed aside the thought of all the student council work she could have done.

Chemistry.

Math.

" _Prove the there exists a root between X equals five and-_ "

"A deluxe parfait for my lovely, lovely master!"

Umi looked up and nodded her thanks to the gray haired maid, but the girl wasn't about to let it go.

"Just to make sure it's extra delicious for you," she exclaimed, "I'll cast my magic spell on it!"

With that, she spun once on her toes and began to gently sing, " _Life means more, because you keep my going. I dreamed that we had another moment, still..._ "

Her voice rang out as sweetly as a silver bell, washing all else from Umi's notice. That was at least, until she abruptly cut herself off.

"Master? M-miss? What's wrong? Are you okay?"

The navy haired girl was distantly aware of the fact that her vision was starting to swim with tears, but she still managed to breathe out, "Kotori...?"

The maid looked around conspiratorially before saying, "Um, my name is _Minalinsky, remember_?"

Umi stood, willing herself to stop trembling and articulate. The girl stared, confused. After a long moment, the former inhaled sharply and simply said, "Just tell me one thing. Does the term ' _astral projection_ ' mean anything to you?"

Seconds later, both were crying.

Kotori threw her arms around Umi in the recapitulation of a dozen magical night together, and it was sweeter than any dream either had hoped for.

* * *

The ashen haired girl hiked up the stairs to the shrine; it was faster to cut across the grounds on her way home from Umi's house. Her smile from their date was still fresh and the night was clear and cool, with the constellations lighting her path. One of the things she appreciated about places like this was the way the relative lack of light pollution opened the purity of the night sky.

Bounding to the level ground at the top, she began striding across when a familiar voice caught her attention, "Well, there's a familiar face. You're out pretty late aren't you?"

Kotori turned to find the purple-haired shrine-maiden some five meters away.

She simply left it at, "I was visiting someone special," with her reply.

The shrine maiden smiled knowingly as she drew closer.

"So then," she asked, "Did you find what you were searching for?"

Kotori smiled in turn.

"Yes, I did."

* * *

 **A/N: And so, like with _Sunset_ , another daydream of mine comes to fruition. Though this story was more modest, I hope you all enjoyed the ride. Expect a small series of oneshots next.**


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